laundromat attendant

People intrigue me. One such person is the attendant at the laundromat that I frequent. He is a dark african american man of about 5'3" (my height), looks to be in his 50's, has a raspy voice, no doubt a result of his chain smoking, wears a baseball cap backwards with his bus ticket sticking out by his forehead, and speaks in a slang that my white self does not understand about 25% of the time. When I first encountered him, I noticed that he talked to everyone in the place. Everyone except me. Maybe it was because he thought I was snobby? I have been told too many times that people have this first impression of me. I was surprised because today he talked to me for the first time. He asked me how I was. I told him I was fine, but then for some reason I randomly blurted, "I have too much work!" It is out of character for me to complain to complete strangers, but I was lonely and I guess I just needed to talk to someone at that moment. His response was simple but I will never forget it. He responded by saying, "You gonna make it, momma! Woman, you gonna be just fine!" I just laughed and said, "Ok." Little did he know that simple statement made a big impact on me. I really needed to hear that today.